NHRA Quotes from Dallas
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The NHRA visited the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas, TX, Sep. 21-23, for the 22nd running of the O'Reilly Fall Nationals where Larry Dixon scored his third win of the year and took over the points lead in Top Fuel, Tony Pedregon also jumped to the top of the points list with his third win this season in Funny Car, Dave Connolly solidified his place on top of Pro Stock with his fourth-straight event win, and Peggy Llewellyn broke through with her career-first Pro Stock Motorcycle title and secured her place in the four-bike Countdown to One field.
But all that was overshadowed by the horrendous second-round crash of Funny Car legends John Force and Kenny Bernstein that left Bernstein unscathed but Force with a compound fracture of his left ankle, a deep cut on his right knee, broken fingers and lacerations on his right hand and a dislocated left wrist.
And as usual, the racers told the whole story through quotes taken from NHRA and team press releases.
FUNNY CAR
"With pressure on us going into the last two races outside the top four in the Countdown, we knew the task at hand and everything just fell our way. I looked at the ladder match ups and knew we could control our own destiny—we needed to get a first-round win and we also needed Cruz to win his match-up. We were fortunate that it worked out to our benefit. It was a big win at just the right time."
— Tony Pedregon after facing off against his brother, Cruz Pedregon, for the first time as teammates in a final round and earning his third win this year
"We weren't aggressive last weekend, and it bit us, and we didn't qualify So, I told my guys that we weren't going to do that again. I said we'd smoke the tires before we do that again.”
— Tim Wilkerson after going 4.787 at 318.17 mph to earn his second top qualifying spot this year
"I saw the whole back of her car at half track. She pulled around me and in these Dodges, when you see somebody out of the window and you see the back of their car, that means they're way out in front. “ — Ron Capps on his view of Ashley Force in their first-round match-up
"We just lost traction and couldn't catch up.” — Mike Ashley on his opening-round loss to Kenny Bernstein
"We sat on the starting line for a rain delay. I don't think it had anything to do with that, but that's just one where you want to bang your head on the wall.” — Jack Beckman after losing round one in a tire-smoking duel with Tony Pedregon
“He was out on me so bad all I could think was 'I hope he red lit, because I'm in a world of hurt here'." — Jeff Arend on losing to a round-one holeshot by Tommy Johnson Jr.
“It just went out and it started to rattle. I thought it was going to clear up and it just got worse until it smoked the tires.” — Gary Scelzi after losing to Cruz Pedregon in round one
“I got my feet tangled up on my starting line procedure and I ended up having a terrible reaction time. And then the thing put a hole out right after I stepped on the gas.” — Wilkerson explaining what went wrong for him against C. Pedregon in round two